Washington Update

GOV. FRANK KEATING President & CEO American Bankers Association

To a typical retail customer, banks are a place where you make deposits or take out a loan. While that may be the fundamental definition of a bank, you and I know banks do so much more. You are custodians of your communities, leaders that help identify needs and develop solutions to help your towns and cities thrive. That commitment to community reveals itself in many ways, from creative financing that helps an affordable housing project get off the ground to extraordinary levels of volunteerism. The AmBA Foundation celebrates this spirit of banking every year with our Community Commitment Awards. And now we are proclaiming it through our website. Visit aba.com/CommunityEngagement and you’ll find an interactive map of the United States linking you to numerous examples of banks’ community engagement. The examples, drawn from the entries we have received since 2012 for our awards, showcase bank innovations in the areas of affordable housing, community and economic development, financial education, serving nontraditional borrowers and the underbanked, protecting older Americans and volunteerism. The map can be searched by state, program type, bank size and key word. This is just a sampling, of course. The content will expand each year as we log more entries to our awards. (If you’d like to see your bank’s efforts listed on the map, be sure to submit an entry next spring.) It’s fitting that the AmBA Foundation unveiled this new resource at a White House Conference on Aging this summer. The White House had invited Scott Dueser, president and CEO of First Financial Bank Texas and a member of both the AmBA and AmBA Foundation boards, to that conference to discuss the approach his bank has taken to protect senior citizens from fraud. With elder financial fraud growing as Baby Boomers age, the White House was looking to spotlight solutions that work. Scott’s “Fraud Busters” program — a partnership between the bank, local police and Adult Protective Services — is such a solution. It has saved senior customers nearly $1 million in fraud in the past year, and its presence on our Community Engagement map helps alert fellow banks to ways they can similarly protect their vulnerable, aging customers. “We hope that by sharing the details of our program and what’s made us successful in protecting our customers, other banks will be encouraged to adopt similar initiatives,” Scott said at the map’s unveiling. The AmBA Foundation is not stopping there when it comes to providing bankers with solutions for serving older Americans. In September, we announced a new financial education program called “Safe Banking for Seniors.” As with the foundation’s popular Teach Children to Save program, Safe Banking for Seniors will provide bankers with resources — like lesson plans, event materials, best practices and media outreach tools — to help them educate seniors and caregivers about elder financial abuse. (Learn more or sign up at aba.com/ seniors.) I strongly encourage your participation in this program. You — and bankers across the country — can be the first line of defense against what is becoming an epidemic of fraud against our aging population. Educate your customers about common scams targeting seniors. Train your staff on spotting signs of abuse. Partner with other organizations to expand your reach. Ensuring our seniors can bank securely is yet another way banks can demonstrate their commitment to their communities — and change the definition of banking. Mapping Banks’ Community Commitment